Sunday, April 30, 2006

One week in the life of Tasmania

Living up here in Canberra, I'm somewhat removed from what goes on at home in Tasmania, but I read the ABC Tasmanian news every few days, and try to keep up with what's happening. I was talking to my parents a couple of hours ago about how it hasn't been a good week for Tassie: first three men from the same family died in a boating accident, then on Tuesday three miners got trapped underground in Beaconsfield. To top it all off, Friday was the tenth anniversary of the Port Arthur Massacre. Just to make it all the more terrible, the family who died were from the Tasman Peninsula, which is where Port Arthur is located.

One of the bodies of the miners was retrieved on Thursday, and there was very little hope for the other two - a fund had been established to collect money for the miners' families, and there was a minute silence at the football today.

But! Miracle of all miracles: as I was talking to my parents, I happened to bring up the ABC news page, and discovered a story that had been posted only about 20 minutes before - the two miners left underground are alive! There doesn't seem to be any information yet on how they are, but they're alive and talking - this is a pretty fantastic end to a week that hasn't treated Tasmania all that well.

1 comment:

Xcaped said...

hmmm 2 weeks on and the miners are still alive but today their plight was quickly brushed aside by the channel 9 news room as it was revealed that news veteran richard carlton died whilst on the mine scene. for the last 10 days, we have had to put up with mike munro stuttering about the plight of the miners, today he has been quick to ignore them and concentrate on richard carlton - unbelievable.